John Cale - Circus Live

A John Cale live concert is nothing short of an experience. Once you've got past the realisation that you're in the presence of a true legend, a man who has had more influence on modern music than virtually anyone, who was pioneering the classical/rock crossover before rock'n'roll was out of its infancy, you usually notice that being in the audience of the great man is something of an endurance test.
You WILL sit through three and a half hours of feedback and be grateful for it and if (if!) you last the distance, you might get an old Velvet Underground song at the end of it, if you're lucky and he's in a particularly good mood. But don't bet on it, and don't feel short changed if you don't.
This makes Circus Live, a two-disc set that weaves, wriggles and feeds back through Cale's five decade career, a tad more user-friendly than the real thing, as straight away you get rewarded for pressing play with a droned out, haunting and (dare I say it?) improved version of Venus in Furs, heading up a 23-song package that covers virtually his entire career, from the Velvet Underground through his ludicrously prolific solo career of the early to mid 70s - songs from Fear, Helen Of Troy, Paris 1919 and Slow Dazzle are all present and correct - and brief late 80s reconciliation with former Velvets bandmate Lou Reed (the Andy Warhol tribute Style It Takes from Songs For Drella) to more recent offerings from 2003's Hobosapiens and 2005's Black Acetate.
The trip in time doesn't go back quite as far as his dabblings in feedback and drone with early experimentalists The Dream Syndicate, except, of course, that the music they pioneered is seared all over this package, from its opening moments to the final track on disc two, titled simply Outro Drone.
Apart from the two otherwise unnamed Drones, there's nothing on Circus Live that doesn't have a home on a previous album but, like actually being there, that doesn't really matter as Cale's constant fiddling with songs that you previously thought were already perfect means that there's something here for even the most ardent completist to enjoy. He's one of the few performers from whom "here's one from my new album" is never a dirty sentence, with everything he touches sounding as fresh, vibrant and timeless as is humanly possible.
Highlights? There are of course, too many to mention. The gentle ballad of Buffalo Ballet, a song too clever to be simple but too beautiful to be forgotten; the juxtaposition of this with a hypnotic, darker and updated Femme Fatale, spliced with Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores, a song he originally tossed away on a B-side before Bauhaus rescued it from obscurity, is in itself a work of pure genius. So is the ethereal Magritte and the funky stomp of Dirty Ass Rock And Roll it leads into.
Hanky Panky Nohow is as sublime and languid here as it has ever been, and Zen is, as you'd expect, meditative and wistful. Possibly the weirdest is his Caleised, virtually unrecognisable cover of the Elvis Presley standard Heartbreak Hotel, pared down and sparse until it becomes a paranoid and decaying midnight lament, tail-ended by a frankly surreal 'thankyuhvermuch', just in case you didn't think he had a sense of humour. It doesn't get much better than this.
If John Cale deserves to be lauded for one thing above all others that he's achieved over his incredible career it's his ability to sound as avant garde, as relevant and as challenging today as he ever has. This is a truly remarkable album from a truly remarkable man, a real treat that's almost as good as actually being there. Any live album that achieves that has really done its work. Brilliant.

The dvd is not included due to the size ... sorry.

Post 1: http://rapidshare.com/files/304039130/Circus_Live_CD1.rar
Post 2: http://rapidshare.com/files/304048435/Circus_Live_CD2.rar

CD 1 has the correct link now

John Cale - Comes Alive

All songs recorded live at The Lyceum, London, February 26, 1984, except the studio tracks Never Give Up On You and Ooh La La. Different mixes were used for the US and UK version of the album
This album was never reissued on cd. However, two tracks are included on the Seducing Down The Door compilation set: Waiting For The Man and Ooh La La (albeit in a very different mix, this is the UK release.

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Hallo Aladdizane,
Can't help you out with your other 2 requests ... never was into singles. Next to Magix Audio it's important to clean the lp before ripping and it helps if it's hasn't been used as beer coaster at parties.
Enjoy the music and for the Dutch half .. groetjes (greetings).

John Cale - Sabotage/Live ( corrected rip)

The similarly slashed Sabotage/Live is the noisiest album of Cale's career, but there's more here than volume and feedback. Recorded live at punk mecca CBGB's, the nine songs range from the howling "Mercenaries (Ready for War)" to the more reflective, dirge-like "Captain Hook," a sardonic epic meditation on British colonialism that's every bit as powerful as the louder, faster tracks.

Side 2 of the original posting has been corrected in this posting....so if you're one of the 488 people who've d/led this lp earlier but havent listened to it yet... all you have to do is d/l side 2 again.

Post 1: http://sharebee.com/e818d790
Post 2: http://sharebee.com/2f2a711d

Muddy Waters - Vintage Muddy Waters

A collection of early releases originaly re-released in 1970 on the UK bootleg label Sunnyland. Came in simple foldout cover with an old foto of Muddy inside and the track listing. Also included in the posting are the original inserts that came with this release; articles from Keith Tillman and Mike Leadbitter plus a fotosheet.
Nothing special, just interesting as a relic with a "Muddy" sound.

Post: http://sharebee.com/bfe1fa46

Lonesome Sundown - If Anybody Asks You

Unlike many of his swamp blues brethren, the evocatively monickered Lonesome Sundown (the name was an inspired gift from producer J.D. Miller) wasn't a Jimmy Reed disciple. Sundown's somber brand of blues was more in keeping with the gruff sound of Muddy Waters. The guitarist was one of the most powerful members of Miller's south Louisiana stable, responsible for several seminal swamp standards on Excello Records.
The former Cornelius Green first seriously placed his hands on a guitar in 1950, Waters and Hooker providing early inspiration. Zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier hired the guitarist as one of his two axemen (Phillip Walker being the other) in 1955. A demo tape was enough proof for Miller -- he began producing him in 1956, leasing the freshly renamed Sundown's "Leave My Money Alone" to Excello.
There were plenty more where that one came from. Over the next eight years, Sundown's lowdown Excello output included "My Home Is a Prison," "I'm a Mojo Man," "I Stood By," "I'm a Samplin' Man," and a host of memorable swamp classics preceded his 1965 retirement from the blues business to devote his life to the church. It was 1977 before Sundown could be coaxed back into a studio to cut a blues LP; Been Gone Too Long, co-produced by Bruce Bromberg and Dennis Walker for the Joliet imprint, was an excellent comeback entry but did disappointing sales (even after being reissued on Alligator). Scattered live performances were about all that was heard of the swamp blues master after that.

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Lightning Slim - We Gotta Rock Tonight

The acknowledged kingpin of the Louisiana school of blues, Lightnin' Slim's style was built on his grainy but expressive vocals and rudimentary guitar work, with usually nothing more than a harmonica and a drummer in support. It was down-home country blues edged two steps further into the mainstream; first by virtue of Lightnin's electric guitar, and secondly by the sound of the local Crowley musicians who backed him being bathed in simmering, pulsating tape echo. As the first great star of producer J.D. Miller's blues talent stable, the formula was a successful one, scoring him regional hits that were issued on the Nashville-based Excello label for over a decade, with one of them, "Rooster Blues," making the national R&B charts in 1959. Combining the country ambience of a Lightnin' Hopkins with the plodding insistence of a Muddy Waters, Slim's music remained uniquely his own, the perfect blues raconteur, even when reshaping other's material to his dark, somber style. He also possessed one of the truly great voices of the blues; unadorned and unaffected, making the world-weariness of a Sonny Boy Williamson sound like the second coming of Good Time Charlie by comparison. His exhortation to "blow your harmonica, son" has become one of the great, mournful catchphrases of the blues, and even on his most rockin' numbers, there's a sense that you are listening less to an uptempo offering than a slow blues just being played faster. Lightnin' always sounded like bad luck just moved into his home approximately an hour after his mother-in-law did.
He was born with the unglamorous handle of Otis Hicks in St. Louis, Missouri on March 13, 1913. After 13 years of living on a farm outside of the city, the Hicks family moved to Louisiana, first settling in St. Francisville. Young Otis took to the guitar early, first shown the rudiments by his father, then later by his older brother, Layfield. Given his recorded output, it's highly doubtful that either his father or brother knew how to play in any key other than E natural, as Lightnin' used the same patterns over and over on his recordings, only changing keys when he used a capo or had his guitar de-tuned a full step.
But the rudiments were all he needed, and by the late '30s/early '40s he was a mainstay of the local picnic/country supper circuit around St. Francisville. In 1946, he moved to Baton Rouge, playing on weekends in local ghetto bars, and started to make a name for himself on the local circuit, first working as a member of Big Poppa's band, then on his own.
The '50s dawned with harmonica player Schoolboy Cleve in tow, working club dates and broadcasting over the radio together. It was local disc jockey Ray "Diggy Do" Meaders who then persuaded Miller to record him. He recorded for 12 years as an Excello artist, starting out originally on Miller's Feature label. As the late '60s found Lightnin' Slim working and living in Detroit, a second career blossomed as European blues audiences brought him over to tour, and he also started working the American festival and hippie ballroom circuit with Slim Harpo as a double act. When Harpo died unexpectedly in 1970, Lightnin' went on alone, recording sporadically, while performing as part of the American Blues Legends tour until his death in 1974. Lazy, rolling and insistent, Lightnin' Slim is Louisiana blues at its finest.

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Smokey Wilson - Blowin' Smoke

Some more Smokey this time on the Big Town label.
This has been re-released on Ace with his other lp on Big Town and on P-Vine ... but I thought I'd post it anyway.

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Otis Spann - I Was Raised In Mississippi

Some more Otis Spann from the 60's (?). This lp released on the French BYG label looks like a collection of tracks taken from various lp's but I could be wrong.
I never really listened to Otis until recently and that was a mistake .... he's brilliant but everybody knows that.

Post:
http://rapidshare.com/files/294582374/otis_spann_-_i_was_raised_in_mississippi.rar

Smokey Wilson - 88th. St. Blues

When Los Angeles-based guitarist Smokey Wilson really got serious about setting a full-fledged career as a bluesman in motion, it didn't take him long to astound the aficionados with an incendiary 1993 set for Bullseye Blues, Smoke n' Fire, that conjured up echoes of the Mississippi Delta of his youth.

Robert Lee Wilson lived and played the blues with Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes, Big Jack Johnson, Frank Frost, and other Mississippi stalwarts before relocating to L.A. in 1970 when he was 35 years old. But instead of grabbing for the gold as a touring entity, he opened the Pioneer Club in Watts, leading the house band and nobly booking the very best in blues talent (all-star attractions at the fabled joint included Joe Turner, Percy Mayfield, Pee Wee Crayton, Albert Collins, and plenty more).
Wilson recorded sparingly at first, his LPs for Big Town not doing the man justice. A 1983 set for Murray Brothers (recently reissued on Blind Pig) with harpist Rod Piazza and Hollywood Fats on rhythm guitar may have been the turning point; clearly, he was gearing up to leave his Mississippi mark on Southern California blues.
Smoke n' Fire and its 1995 encore, The Real Deal (a title now used for three contemporary blues albums in a year's time: John Primer and Buddy Guy have also claimed it), nominate Smokey Wilson as one of the hottest late-bloomers in the blues business.
Re-release some time ago on cd with 3 extra tracks.

Post: http://rapidshare.com/files/294578120/smokey_wilson_-_88th_st._blues.rar

Various - New Orleans R&B Volume 1 and 2

Two old Flyright complimations of New Orleans R&B from late 40's to the mid 60's. The usual artists plus a couple of lesser known ones. For a tracklisting visit: http://www.wirz.de/music/flyrifrm.htm .
Just alot of good fun music for a rainy Sunday morning.

Vol. 1:http://rapidshare.com/files/294573326/va_-_new_orleans_r_b_vol._1.rar
Vol. 2:http://rapidshare.com/files/294568541/va_-_new_orleans_r_b_vol._2.rar